Lawless

August 31, 2012

Offering your first genuine glimpse of the newer, more Warren Beatty-esque iteration of Shia LaBeouf—whose maturation is marked by a noticeable dearth of big-ass robots—here is the trailer for John Hillcoat's Lawless, the Prohibition-era tale of a time when moonshiners ran rampant over rural America, bootleggin' and payin' no mind to the gubmint and wearin' vests. The film recently nicked its new title from Terrence Malick, but otherwise remains faithful to its former namesake The Wettest County In The World, Matt Bondurant's historical novel about his ancestors' rise to power in backwoods Virginia. LaBeouf and a particularly stoic Tom Hardy play the alpha males of the Bondurant clan, who struggle to keep their operation from running afoul of gangsters, represented here by Gary Oldman, and federal agents like Guy Pearce's peacocking investigator (whose look is reportedly an homage to Lawless screenwriter Nick Cave). Tense standoffs and Tommy guns ensue, with the mood lightened occasionally by love interests Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska who somehow don't get a lot of country dirt and cow shit on them. And again, there are zero big-ass robots.